The proper use of edges in your oil paintings is very important. They are, in fact, crucial in bringing your painting subject to live and make it stand out. There are many ways you can use edges to enhance your oil paintings. Here are some of them:

* Degree of Hardness - The proper implementation of edges can be used to express the degree of hardness or softness of objects and subjects.

* Degree of Roundness - How you manipulate edges is also important in reflecting the degree of roundness and sharpness of objects and subjects.

* Directional Indicator - Edges are an excellent help in mapping your painting. That is, they can be used to lead the viewer’s eye around the painting and ultimately to the focal point or area.

This can be done in such a manner that the viewer is hardly aware of the manipulation. In the West, people’s eyes enter a painting from the left. So, here is an opportunity to design your composition on the left as an invitation to enter your painting. From there, edges and forms can be used to lead and guide the viewer further into the painting and to the focal point. On the right of the focal area your composition should be designed to lead the viewer’s eye back around to the focal area.

Of course, you are always free to break these sorts of rules if you have an interesting reason to do so. Also, be aware that in the East people enter a painting from the right. So, in the end, you are somewhat faced with a dilemma but this is not something you need to worry about.

In real life most edges look soft because our eyes are constantly moving which has the effect of blurring edges. An edge will only assume its sharpness if we specifically focus on it because when we focus the eye comes to rest.

Therefore, it is best to keep the edges soft in general unless you want to draw attention to a certain feature. Because the focal area is the area where you wish the viewer to pay the most attention it is only natural that in that area you may want to include a number of sharp edges.

The other situation in which to use a sharp edge is when you want to make a certain feature appear to advance, i.e., to make it come forward relative to its neighborhood.

However, in general, avoid excessive use of hard edges because they work against the creation of realism. That is, too many hard edges will detract from the realistic illusion of your painting. On the other hand, a painting totally devoid of hard edges tends to look uninteresting and dull because it tends to reduce to whole painting to an even undifferentiating scene. So, the solution is to put in a few hard edges but not too many.

Then there is also the subject of the so-called lost edges. These are very interesting edges that can add a lot of interest to your painting. These edges are usually applied when two neighboring shapes have the same value.

The whole idea of a lost edge starts with a visible edge and when this edge enters an area of equal values it becomes invisible or gets lost. Further down, the edge reappears where the values of the neighboring areas start to diverge again.

The eye has a natural tendency to fill in the lost edge. The use of lost edges is artistically very powerful and should be part of your repertoire of tricks. Allowing the colors of one form to work themselves into the neighboring planes of equal value is a delightful way to loosen up a painting and make it visually dynamic. Note that a painting for some reason, as it progresses, has a tendency to tighten up, i.e., to become mechanical.

In conclusion, there are three types of edges: the soft edge, the hard edge, and the lost edge. Most of the edges are on the soft side. Hard edges should be used sparingly with the intent of attracting attention or to advance certain features. The lost edge is usually used where values of neighboring forms become equal. They serve as a way to loosen up a painting.

About the Author

Remi Engels, Ph.D., is a pencil portrait artist and oil painter.